Training camp for Rutgers football began on July 28 and has been in full swing as we quickly approach the start of college football season. Rutgers has one of the earliest games of the college football season, squaring off against Howard on August 29, taking place a few days before students return to campus. This means that Rutgers has a little bit less time in training camp than most teams in the NCAA. Several bits of news that have come out about the Knights training camp lead to the notion that they are using this time very wisely and that they are looking better in camp than many initially anticipated.
Training camp news
Starting with some of the biggest news of the week, several Big Ten analysts came back from a visit to Rutgers’ training camp impressed with what they had seen of the passing attack. Yogi Roth, former USC quarterback coach and current BTN analyst had this to say about what he saw.
“We easily could have said, ‘you know what, it was hard to make a judgment today because of the weather, et cetera.’ I can make a judgment,” Roth said. “I liked the anticipation, the timing, most importantly, the tempo of the offense — they put in various tempos in practice. They clearly can run the football, receiver they got better. They’re going to be more explosive. Are they elite? Way too early to say that, but they are much better than they were a year ago.”
Howard Griffith, another BTN analyst, had this to say about quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis specifically.
“It’s easy for me to go back and look at what happened last year — and he needs to continue to get better — but to see him in one practice in the conditions, and then having an opportunity to sit here and talk with him, he’s going to be just fine. He’s going to do the things that he needs to do to continue to help this program move forward.”
Kenny Fletcher making progress at tight end
The next big piece of news that has come out of Rutgers’ training camp is the progress that defensive end recruit Kenny Fletcher is making as he converts to tight end. Fletcher is the man who Rutgers’ coaching staff believes can fill the big hole generated by the departure of Johhny Langan and Shawn Bowman. Fletcher does have playing time at the college level, appearing in 24 games. However, he has only appeared at tight end in one game so far in his career, the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl against Miami, a game he generated no stats.
Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano last spring said that Fletcher was making a lot of progress and that he is what you look for in a tight end.
More recently, Fletcher shared more specifics about how he feels he is adjusting to his new role.
“The summer was tough,” Fletcher said. “The conditioning was tough. But with my development in the tight-end position, I think I got better and I learned more in the playbook. Everything’s been going well.”
“I dug deeper into the playbook because you can never know enough,” Fletcher said. “Once you think you know something all the way, you really don’t. I dug deeper, and as I dug deeper I learned more so I felt more comfortable. As training camp’s been going along right now, it’s helping me.”
Rutgers only stands to benefit with Fletcher getting and feeling more comfortable with his new position and, according to him, the transition is going smoothly.
